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Store hours cut again

Started by newdawnrising, 21-07-22, 02:55PM

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NightAndDay

I wonder what USDAW will do if Liz Truss outlaws labour unions.

King1999

I think she needs to worry about the civil unrest on the horizon.Usdaw aren't a union anyway you fight for your members they aren't capable,so they will just bend over and take it anyway. :thumbup:

Teddybonkers

@century99 - Good for you, but Tesco don't care what shop floor staff think of the job. You can be replaced in a thrice. Staff turnover must be horrendous - put up or p**s off! 

Preacherpauly

#28
People really need to understand this. It doesn't matter how many years of service you have done and how much effort you put in, they really don't care about the lower level staff.

For me I go in, get assigned my isle and make it last all shift. if I'm ahead I slow down as I don't get paid enough to do other peoples work, then I go home.


King1999

Totally agree I'm certainly not killing myself because of some new way of working rubbish,bad enough trying to get one job done.The company has got rid of too many Indians and still wants more out of us.A pitiful pay rise isn't going to incentivise me or alot of people.

barafear

Thought I'd contribute to this thread with some comments - probably about a month behind others on this thread given it's about queue lengths and staffing on tills. I'm writing this purely as a shopper these days - I am on a lifestyle break from Tesco for a few months - I work in a superstore and yes before I "left" I had noticed that the number of tills being open had reduced slowly - more push towards SAYS - even though we don't have a dedicated SAYS till area. I am also aware that a very large extra (if there is such a thing) nearby had gone down the route of converting tills to self serve tills - to the extent that there are only a handful of normal tills left - I don't shop in that store very often so cannot comment how that's going - except that staff from that store (when they've come to my store) state that customers don't like the changes and are constantly moaning.
But my story is more about my experience with another Extra store that I use regularly - I use it to pop in for lunch and pick up a few bits - and I am happy (with a relatively small shop) to use the self scan tills (I'm not signing up for SAYS) - over the last few months service (availability of tills) has got worse and worse - and "management" (if they can ever be seen) don't seem to do anything about it. So the layout of this store sees a few options of tills that can be used - there are three "express style self scan" tills near the sandwich section - if these are open and manned for more than an hour a day I would be surprised - it's literally a 1 in 10 chance they are switched on - and most of my visits are at lunchtime!!

Then the main bank of tills have a layout that there is a smaller bank of self scan tills at one end (4 tills, one cashier covers these) and then there are probably about 16 main bank tills - before we get to two basket tills - and then the bigger bank of self scan tills (8) and then a bank of 8 SAYS tills. So the gradual reduction in service (And longer wait in queues) has happened over the last 3-4 months - and the first thing I noticed that stopped was the basket tills - I haven't seen those open for at least 10 weeks now - so that leaves a choice of main bank or self serve - as I was saying about the layout, the smaller section is based next to a door which leads out to the town centre - whereas the other end of the store (with the bigger bank) leads out to the car park - so often - as I was on foot, I would happily use the smaller bank of self scan tills and the queue would be manageable - but again, these tills are now very rarely open - so the choice reduces again - the main bank tills are rarely fully staffed - so the queues at them are long - and the customers generally all have big trolleys - so anyone hoping for a quick getaway now goes to the self scan tills - however, what I've noticed (whilst standing in a long queue (10+ people in front of me, plus 8 people of the tills - assuming they are all working! is a regular occurrence) is that due to many of the changes I've mentioned above, it's not just "normal self scan" customers that are coming to self scan anymore - it's also those who don't want to wait at the main bank tills - so you get more trolleys at self scan - the checkouts are not the "new style long belt ones" - so there's pressure on room (especially as most customers cannot park them correctly over the shelf (on which you'd place a basket) - and then it's clear that some of these customers are not as au fait with the self scan tills as a lot of regular users - so all in all, this creates delays as well - and then finally - and this is down to Tesco - the staffing on these tills is ridiculously undermanned - today, I could only see one member of staff (covering both self scan and SAYS tills - 16 in all) - and she was seemingly doing a service check in the SAYS area - eventually the checkout supervisor turned up to help (probably at least 8 mins later) and then another member of staff turned up - an observation about the staff - no offence at all to those members of staff - but they were hardly the youngest/fittest members of staff - and I know that working on self scan can get quite hectic and tiring - as per someone else's comment up thread - I will use the "comments opportunity" (bottom of receipt) to voice my concerns (probably copy/paste the above) - but not sure where it will get me - and where I would stand being a current member of staff complaining (although if I was a director of Tesco I would make a complaint if I saw something wrong!).

To top it all, I read a story in the Grocer last week (I don't get the Grocer -saw it on Google) - that customers "like the changes Tesco are making in their trial stores" - so full steam ahead with a full roll out.

https://www.nationalworld.com/lifestyle/money/tesco-plans-manned-checkouts-uk-stores-3805703


grim up north

Something i've noticed is that if you used 'says' you used to be able to take the hander scanner to any till to checkout. Then it was only self serve tills. Now it's only certain self serve tills. I thought the whole point of it was so people could be in and out, have less staff interaction therefore saving time(and cost to T*). So why is this becoming a long winded affair?

Morris999

I've always wondered where these trial stores are that customers always seem to love the changes!!

However I think it's more likely the case that the project owner makes it all up to justify their job!!

All I know is that earlier in the year my store went to wait time and the project river came along(removal of main bank for more self service).
It's been an absolute disaster!!
Customers are constantly complaining about lack of main bank tills and queues.
Complaint after complaint is coming in via the online surveys and all we have been told by the project owners is,it's our fault customers are complaining due to us not selling it to them correctly, and if we did then they would all move and happily queue at self service!!

We used to full bank 12 tills on a Sunday, we now have 6 and all they give us hours for is on average 3-4 tills open!
It's getting to the stage were colleages who are contracted Sundays want to drop hours and those that did overtime are now reluctant to do it.

tablet


Worth a read;

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2022/08/tesco-checkout-shake-up/

Love the corporate customer service washing;

The supermarket said last week that it would cut the number of traditional manned checkouts in store due to a "lack of customer demand".

newguy20

Quote from: Morris999 on 19-08-22, 06:15PMIt's been an absolute disaster!!
Customers are constantly complaining about lack of main bank tills and queues.
Complaint after complaint is coming in via the online surveys and all we have been told by the project owners is,it's our fault customers are complaining due to us not selling it to them correctly, and if we did then they would all move and happily queue at self service!!

We used to full bank 12 tills on a Sunday, we now have 6 and all they give us hours for is on average 3-4 tills open!
It's getting to the stage were colleages who are contracted Sundays want to drop hours and those that did overtime are now reluctant to do it.

We have been told to NOT encourage customers to do the viewpoint survey because too many now complain about the wait time which makes the SM bad.

Like you, Sundays are no longer popular and managers beg people to work them, it is not worth working as it's just a whole shift of taking flack and complaints.

I am yet to use a self serve machine that will scan as quick as a cashier on mainbank.

Totot

Another problem with tesco self serve is they got so much problem, mostly the old big one.
Hard to scan stuff, very slow, scale that messed up most of the time, club card (with qr code) hard to scan, make some customer lose their discount.

I know tesco used different  software in some places and some type of self scanned, but now in my shop and some other they got a bug (used to have this years ago ) that basically cuz the till is slow and they put the notification of not scanned, with some sound, but if you ignored it and the scale tipping back, you can keep scanning with alert and pay with some stuff unpaid.

For big company, tesco IT is horrendous. It's almost like  memes of big bosses from boomer generation got no clue about the importance of IT.

Again, in my opinion, these changes just high management want to achieved the  Q report target to get their bonus and extra, and the mid management who implement it just want to tick boxes, to justified their job, either they dont care or they can't think comprehensively in managerial and entrepreneurship way, so many flaw not only inefficient, but ineffective even.

Bobmay

#36
Quote from: newdawnrising on 21-07-22, 02:55PMHas anyone heard anything about store hours being cut again this time due to the rise in inflation. Conference call was this morning and will find out which departments next week. So many hours have been lost since January.

The CEO has stated in the recent report about profits the shopping habits of customers are changing so Tesco also need to change.  So you will see that Tesco will soon cut hours down remove nights from some stores and instead have twilight hours morning evening. Tesco is sinking fast if you are offered redundancy take it and find better job.

Bobmay

Quote from: lucgeo on 24-07-22, 09:25AMIt's not really about moving hours though, is it? It's about cutting hours...people have their hours moved, even shifts changed, for " needs of the business" but then the hours they're moving into are there because the ones who've gone, their hours were lost which resulted in not enough cover for that timeframe.
We had the SM and PP constantly tell people if they didn't like it, there's the door! The same PP that was later in floods of tears, when the PP cull arrived...they survived it and kept their job, mainly because their partner was a SM in another local store, and the majority of other PP's on the group took redundancy! I was actually asked by the SM to try to deter union members from
complaining, whilst the PP was going through a very unsettling time!!  :-X  :-X  :D  ;D

They can't force you to change your hours unless you agree. If you agree to change your hours that is ok otherwise they will have to agree to redundancy or keeping your hours which I think tesco would prefer to pay you off than keep you as it cheaper for them.

OvaSees

Quote from: tablet on 19-08-22, 08:42PMWorth a read;

https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2022/08/tesco-checkout-shake-up/

Love the corporate customer service washing;

The supermarket said last week that it would cut the number of traditional manned checkouts in store due to a "lack of customer demand".

That's a situation of Tesco's own creation through continual replacement of manned tills with SS - if 99% of tills are SS and only 1% is manned, guess what - not many customers will be joining that queue at the manned till. It's Tesco forcing change onto customers rather than a response to customer demand, the decision makers have no care in their hearts for customers.

Quote from: newdawnrising on 21-07-22, 02:55PMHas anyone heard anything about store hours being cut again this time due to the rise in inflation. Conference call was this morning and will find out which departments next week. So many hours have been lost since January.
So they moved stores payroll management away from a fiscal budget and to an hours-based model in order to disconnect resource from sales and relate hours to work and routines, then cut hours because inflation which increases sales? That's typically Tesco circular logic right there, but then again from a company that's got better than anyone at spending a tenner to save a pound it shouldn't surprise us.

Hammer10

If the normal till were manned we would not have queues up all aisles snaking onto self service this company is becoming the biggest joke in this country.

ProdavnicaTajni

We're already having this problem (and we haven't even removed tills to put in the new trolley self-services yet but it's coming.) From what I've heard from other stores, the new trolley/big self-service machines are ALL going to be card only. Obviously that will cause massive queues for the one till they have on (if they even have that.) Queues are massive in our store now and it's a rubbish experience for both staff and customers. I can't imagine how bad it'll get once they put the new self-serve in.

newguy20

There's still lots of problems with the new tills, eg card only, unable to store transactions etc which is a pain in the backside. These should really be ironed out before they are spread out.

lordadmiral

I am wondering how much one till cost.
For now self service is only increasing theft.
And what if there is 40 self scan checkouts in the store, and 2 people to keep an eye on them and half of them will call for assistance?
It takes ages now to wait for someone who aprove transaction, deal with some issue. Etc

Hammer10

We get a lot of older customers who are alone they only come to our store because they like to have a natter at the checkouts whilst their shopping is being scanned otherwise they have no one to talk to I have spoken to a few in past few weeks to see what they think about self serve and they say they won't use them.

lucgeo

They are deliberately making the checkout chutes more restrictive. I couldn't even get a bag on to pack yesterday as the card reader was intruding right into the centre of the packing area!
Gone are the days when you could get a couple of bags open on the chute, and a couple in the trolley for ease of packing, there's more packing space on the self serve...hmmm  :-X
Live for today. Learn from yesterday.

whatajoke2019

Sainsbury's seem just as bad for "forcing" customers to use Scan as You just lately (certainly my nearest one).

Used it a short while ago myself as it was busier than expected and the queues were horrendous. Needless to say, in the time I was sorted out, I'd have been better off waiting in the checkout queue!

penguin

My nearest large Sainsburys is really bad for trying to force people to use self service, I've seen it myself on several occasions staff going up to people waiting and basically telling them there being taken to self service but its ok as this time we are going to show you how to work them, whatever happened to customers having a choice.

For what its worth my own preference is to use self service or scan as you shop but many do not want to and stores will forget that at there peril.
Do not let anyone tell you there is not a decent job and life beyond Tesco.

Redshoes

It's all about targets. Each type of till has an expected target of customers going through them and they are funded for that amount. Plucking figures out the air, main bank has 34%, self service 33% and scan as you shop also has 33%. The reality of 50% of customers using main bank is not enough funding and if scan as you shop only has a take up of 10% of customers they will be told to try and address this to ease the pressure on checkouts.
Nobody has to go through a till type they don't like. I hardly ever use a main bank. I prefer scan as you shop so I can pack my bags as I shop but if I am in a store that does not offer this service I will use self service. I just prefer to do myself. We all have different views and preferences and we are all correct in our own little way.
I had a customer say they would never use self service as it's putting people out of work. I said "I understand why you say this but wages have the biggest impact on any company so in my view it helps secure jobs for those remaining" a harsh reality.

londoner83

It's more about demographics.

 The majority of people under 50 have no issue serving themselves, whereas the majority aged 50+ prefer a manned till.

For Tesco manning tills is one of the largest payroll costs, so it makes economic sense to introduce more self service tills.

The gamble is, is now the time to alienate our older shoppers with a change our younger shoppers will welcome.

Bobmay

Quote from: londoner83 on 23-09-22, 08:13AMIt's more about demographics.

 The majority of people under 50 have no issue serving themselves, whereas the majority aged 50+ prefer a manned till.

For Tesco manning tills is one of the largest payroll costs, so it makes economic sense to introduce more self service tills.

The gamble is, is now the time to alienate our older shoppers with a change our younger shoppers will welcome.

Tesco is moving towards automation slowly and surely they will have machines stacking shelves like vending machines and no customer assistant need excpet for an few maybe 5 staff per store. And no checkouts anymore.

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